Kentucky
Fried Chicken was founded by Harland Sanders, who began selling chicken
from his roadside restaurant in Corbin Kentucky in the 1930's. An
entrepreneur, Sanders identified the potential of franchising his
restaurant concept and the very first "Kentucky Fried Chicken" franchise
opened in Salt Lake City in Utah in 1952 by Pete Harman who was both
the owner of one of the cities largest restaurants and a good friend of
Sanders.

Harman hired a sign writer named Don Anderson to work on the
first restaurant, who coined the name "Kentucky Fried Chicken" creating a
good product differentiator (being chicken) and a vision of southern
hospitality for the brand. Harman also introduced the "bucket meal" and
trademarked the phrase "Its finger Lickin' good", which over time have
both played an important role within the companies identity and
advertising. With my interest in branding, packaging and 1950's
Americana, I was very keen to visit when I passed though Salt Lake city
back in 2002.

Today KFC is the second largest restaurant chain with
18,875 outlets worldwide. Only McDonalds has more! So weather you like
the food or not, thats an incredible business achievement and an
interesting piece of history.

Harland
even branded himself as Colonel Sanders and became a prominent figure
in American history. KFC diversified the fast food market and challenged
the popular hamburger. Saunders sold the business to a group of
investors in 1964.

Bringing back that Heritage - The 2015 Redesign

Earlier this year KFC began using ad agency Wieden + Kennedy. The agency hired Darrell Hammond of "Saturday Night Live" fame to
play KFC's founder Colonel Sanders, who would once again become the
centrepiece to all brand and marketing.

This move back to a more
traditional vision for "Kentucky Fried Chicken" has been reinforced
further by the recent brand and packaging re-design by New York agency Grand Army,
who have brought back the famous stark red colour bars and a minimal
black and white illustration of the colonel. This new look brilliantly
recreating the nostalgia of the past, yet still maintains a connection
to the recent looking image. The only criticisms of the redesign I have heard is that the logo does have a tendency to look a little like a stick figure with a large Colonel Sanders head. I will let you be the judge on that one!!!

The brand move on is a great example of how
a visual change can help your business look somehow more genuine and
homemade. I for one love what's been done for this re brand by Grand Army. Bringing
back some of the companies vintage aesthetic into it's future vision is
my kind of design! Well thought out and for me a lot more of a timeless
solution, proving further that its often that intellectual extraction
and what you don't put in to a design that can often make it a success
and easier for the consumer to connect with.